D Magazine ⋅ December 2006

Review: Vitto Italian

Our heavy-on-the-garlic meal at Vitto Italian was more than satisfying. (We just refrained from kissing for a while.)

By Jennifer ChininisFrom D Magazine December 2006

Someone in the kitchen loves garlic at this cheerful Italian cafe in the Bishop Arts District, starting with small knots of garlic bread so slathered with the stinking rose that you could fend off a vampire. Same goes for the piping-hot shrimp scampi on the combo appetizer plate. This, by the way, is not an indictment. Our meal at Vitto Italian was more than satisfying. (We just refrained from kissing for a while.)All the usual suspects are here—chicken and eggplant Parmigiana, baked manicotti—but a few inspired options include feta fettuccine with spinach noodles, mushrooms, and roasted chicken tossed in Alfredo sauce, and a full menu of designer pizzas. Fat pillows of ravioli stuffed with ricotta and lobster, smothered with tomato cream sauce and giant capers, were enough to share and then some. My guest that evening is a self-proclaimed veal piccata expert, and he declared Vitto’s buttery, caper-heavy version top-notch.

We also shared a slice of pizza, at the recommendation of our chatty and amiable server, who knew better than we the enormity of a single slice. We loved the garlicky (of course) crust, slick with olive oil and barely visible under the heap of toppings such as spinach, Canadian bacon, sliced red peppers, and feta and mozzarella cheeses. I wonder if they deliver to Lakewood.